The Waters Reflection
by Alicorn
Summary: AU Pokémon fic: Humans no longer the masters? A young female doctor not of the lowly human race gets her world turned upside down by a rare discovery. Chikoshipping, AAMRN and Rocketshipping. Discontinued for rewrite.
1. The Discovery

The Water's Reflection 

By Alicorn  
Part 1: The Discovery

She hadn't been looking for trouble, but it seemed it had found her. A raging inferno of red and blue grew out of the forest undergrowth, masking the life giving afternoon sun.  
She drew her single fragile leaf over her eyes and screamed, one hardly intelligible word born of fear.

"FIRE!"

The scream went unheard, and cowering down into the brown earth, Chikorita waited for the end.  
When it did not come as quickly as she had feared she crinkled her eyes shut harder still and began to regret all the things which she had never done in her life._I never told Sunspot I loved him..oh, did he ever even know?..I never saw the world beyond on the Mountains...it must be so beautiful...I never had an egg of my own...I never learned Giga Drain..I.._  
By the time she got to missing her great uncle Laceleaf's hundredth hatching day Chikorita was more than a bit puzzled.  
_What's taking so long? The least the gods could do is make my death quick and painless._

She opened her bright ruby eyes and looked ahead at the flames, mustering in up all the courage she could find within. But her voice was only it's usual soft chirp edged with defiance.

"Gods, take me if you want, but please don't give me time to regret!"

The flames did not move and simply sat on the forest floor, as natural and solid as a rotting pine log.   
Chikorita tilted her head to the left and her head leaf bent in a lazy half loop like a cat's tail, a sure sign that she was now curious.  
Curiosity being her trademark, Chikorita did what every single sense of her body and race of the grass type screamed against: Walking the short couple strides space that remained between herself and the enemy, she bent out, and gently as a raindrop, touched the fire.

_There's no heat at all!_ She thought in surprise, then touched it yet again  
_ No wait...it is warm...but..._ She rubbed up against it with her whole face this time, a light purr escaping her mouth _...but..it is a comforting warmth.._

Nearly smelling a dearly loved scent upon this strange fire Chikorita found herself nearly nuzzling it when suddenly, it made a noise!

Chikorita leaped back in horror as the strange fire made a terrible groaning sound, much louder than any cultured Pokémon she had ever heard.  
It rose up and slowly an area of tan colored skin with bright black eyes appear between the red and blue.

So, what she had really been rubbing were its colored skin on it head and chest! It was a human! A very rare human at that...

Chikorita's eyes grew bright with wonder.  
The human appeared dazed as it pulled off the red and white skin upon its head to reveal mane of short black fur.  
It rubbed its hand with its long figured paws.

Then it caught sight of her and mumbled something.

_How cute!_ Chikorita thought _It's actually trying to pretend it can talk..._

She cleared her throat and spoke very slowly, stressing every word.

"I AM CHI..KO..RI..TA...YOU..ARE...HU...MAN..."

The black furred human looked down at her and then suddenly parted it's lips to reveal teeth (a sign of pleasure, she knew) and murmured something again.

"My, you are a charming one, aren't you?" She questioned, knowing it couldn't understand

Slowly, and with great difficultly, the male human seemed to try to rise off all fours and onto its hindquarters.  
Chikorita sensed its effort, and came forward pressing her full body weight against one of it's odd long figured paws.

Suddenly, a large cloth sack was thrown over the human and in its wake sent her tumbling forward where she had be placing all her weight.  
The impact of hitting a nearby tree with her head sent her vision spinning.

A huge Snorlax and a gruff looking Magmar stood before her, the pokemon wore a worried expression.

"Dr. Chikorita are you all right?"

"I..I..." She stuttered, for some reason words would not come.

"That's quite alright, you need not speak. This horrible human has frightened you so, you have a right to be out of sorts. Any Pokémon would feel the same."

The Snorlax shouldered the bag that contained the trashing human with a rough thump.

"Come along Doctor, we will have any wounds the beast may have caused you healed quickly...you are much to delicate a female to be a human researcher I've always..."

But Chikorita was not listening to the Magmar's words; her mind was somewhere far away to a few moments before, looking into a pair of glinting human eyes.

_What are you, strange one?_

Author's End Note/Disclaimer:  
E-mail me a reveiw  
Pokémon is © 1995-2005 Nintendo/Creatures Inc./GAME FREAK Inc  
Basic idea from classic movie starring Charliton Heston, and book by Pierre Boille © 1967-2005 FOX & many talented people.  
Plot adaption and character writing in terms of this fanfic © 2003-2005 Rebecca Lakey. 


	2. The Unbelievers

**Part 2: The Unbelievers**  
  
  
  
Humans came in two types, young and unpleasant to the eye, and aged and downright unbearable to look at. But, Magmar decided right then and there, as he stared at the human was just being dumped out; this human was a whole third type all by itself.  
  
It wore brightly colored skins and the moment the human keeper Snorlax clamped the traditional collar and restraining chains onto it's arms it began to trash around wildly again. The observing counsel gasped with interest as the animal's lips moved and it omitted a loud sound of varying tones. Magmar shook his head in disgust, coming forward himself and tightening the collar another notch. The human fell back into the waited paws of Snorlax clutching its throat.  
  
Magmar turned to the gathered semi-circle of elite Pokémon lounging in the audience hall.  
  
"As you can see females and gentlemales, this new one is particularly ferocious. I myself caught it just this eve, trying to kill the renown Dr. Chikorita as she was out for a sunbath in the Crystal Forest."  
  
Several mummers of conversation grew after his words, when a lone leaf was raised.  
  
"Yes, Professor Sunspot?" Magmar asked  
  
The young male Chikorita placed his forelegs upon the table waving his leaf thoughtfully  
  
"I think I speak for all of us when I say I am eternally grateful to you for the safe return of the doctor" There were many nods among the crowd 

" But all the same I wonder if you're proposal to the counsel of terminating this human is a bit drastic?" Sunspot locked his eyes to Magmar's 

" However violent he may be, he seems a very rare sample of the race."  
  
  
  
"He?" Magmar laughed, joined in by most of the council "Come, come, now professor, there is no need to use an honorary term to a human. Humans are lowly its as they have and always stall be, at there proper place under the paws and hoofs of the mighty Pokémon race…"  
  
A female gloom shouldered her sleeping Bulbasaur husband in the ribs with a leaf and he shouted a spirited "Here! Here!" before falling back to sleep.  
  
"Be that as it may Lord Magmar from your unstable beliefs in the Old Writings, humans have been shown to possess…"  
  
The resounding sound of a hall door closing softly made the Pokémon in the room turn from their debate. Even Lord Magmar, who knew all too well who it was. Dr. Chikorita stood, taking in air in small gasps as though she had run all the way here from the med center. Whenever there was a question of human rights presented to the counsel it seemed you could not find one of them without the other. He growled to himself. They were as persistent as baby Weedles.  
  
"I…will..claim responsibility.." She gasped, placing a drooping bandage back on her forehead with her leaf.  
  
"Responsibility? Whatever for doctor?" Magmar asked  
  
Professor Sunspot came forward, speaking softly to her.  
  
"Chikorita? You should be resting.."  
  
The doctor ignored her partner's comforting vine whip across her back.  
  
" I claim responsibility for this human and would like permission to study and observe it at my human research lab."  
  
Magmar smirked  
  
_This is so like her, the symtathists._  
  
"All toughs in favor?" The records keeper, a small Rattata with a voice nearly two times its size, asked.  
  
"Aie."The Xatu section replied into the minds of everyone present  
  
"Aie." The Scyther answered speaking for the flying and bug types  
  
"Aie." A Cefable chimed in  
  
"Motion seconded and carried by the bug and normal clans." The Slugma sitting in the middle of the group thundered, turning it's oozing face toward Magmar "I only hope this famous doctor lives up to her father's breeding."  
  
"Yes Duke." Magmar said with a bow. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the Chikorita bowing as well. He turned to her sharply.  
  
"All right doctor, I leave this human in your capable vines…but if anything should happen, both you and your friend Sunspot's titles shall be at risk…"  
  
Both Chikoritas bowed to him respectfully.  
  
"Yes Lord, we will do our best." Dr. Chikorita chirped  
  
Lord Magmar's eyes grew a bit more flame like than usual.  
  
_Someday they will be broken of their weak ideas about human souls…  
The truth of the Old Writing stall heal thee unbelievers…  
_  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	3. The Captive

Part 3: The Captive  
  
He wished that if he were able to wake up, this whole thing would be just a bad dream.  
  
But even waking up did not seem to make much difference.  
  
A pain, sharp and raged like a repeated wisps' sting, shot over and over though his right leg, sending his mind back into half conciseness behind closed eye lids.  
  
Ash thought back to just that morning.or had it been longer ago?  
  
************  
  
The day had started out bright and sunny and he had returned to his home of New Bark Town with his lone companion, as well as his first pokemon, Pikachu. When professor Elm had first given him the electric mouse Pok‚mon it had been less than willing to even obey orders, but by this time they had become great friends. In fact, their partnership had won them half the badges in all Johto within three years, a league record.   
  
However, this day, as fate would have it, Professor Elm happened to be working on a new experiment: A machine, which if successful, would be half the size of a normal poke ball even in small carry form. Instead of storing a Pok‚mon within it, the device would "dog tag" the Pok‚mon and send it to another realm of peaceful space where it could roam and live freely until the master needed it.   
  
***********  
  
Ash winched as he felt something gently moving his leg. He could nearly hear the words of so short a time ago, echoing as though they were being said down a long hollow tunnel.  
  
*************  
  
"Much more civilized to the Pok‚mon than a tiny PC box or a cramped poke ball don't you think?" Elm said  
  
"Yeah professor that sounds cool!" Ash replied  
  
"Pika!" Pikachu whole heartily agreed  
  
Ash pressed his face to the clear dome that held the tiny metal miracle, no bigger than a modern day computer chip.  
  
"Sure looks hi-tech Pikachu." He mused  
  
"Pichi.." Pikachu added his mouth curved in an impressed "oh"  
  
"Please, please, you two! That machine is still in the highly sensitive experimental stages, there's no telling what contact with a living organism may do.."   
  
Professor Elm said, frantically snatching up Pikachu  
  
"That's all right professor, if I'm going to be a Pok‚mon master I've got to learn to take risks. Things like come everyday for trainers like me, right Pikachu?"  
  
"Pikachu." The electric mouse replied, looking unsure  
  
Suddenly the dome around the machine began to glow and the glass shattered, beams of light radiating out like a newly born sun.  
  
Professor Elm dived out of the way quickly with Pikachu in tow, holding a hand out toward him.  
  
"Ash! The transporter is reacting to the energy in your older style poke balls! You must not let yourself be sucked in!"  
  
His every muscle braced against the raging wind coming from the light, Ash reached out his arm.inch by inch each step he took a battle of his will.   
  
Suddenly, a peace of glass came flying, just a sliver really, hardly worth noticing normally, and cut into his leg.   
  
It was enough.  
  
The world seemed to move in slow motion to him from that moment.  
  
The pain. His concentration broken, he fell flat on his stomach and was drug across the lab floor backward, as helpless as a Magikarp on a hook.   
  
The room suddenly was rimed with a sunset like light as the vortex swallowed him whole. At the other end he could just barely see Pikachu being forcefully held back, eyes full of tears.  
  
"PIKA PIIIIIII!" It screamed   
  
*************  
  
Ash's own scream joined that of his memory as he snapped fully awake. That is, it would have been a scream if the leather collar around his neck had not been keeping him from making the smallest sound. His eyes came back into focus slowly. He was in a cage it bedded with golden straw and wearing only a loincloth that looked to be made of a mixed cousin of moss and cloth.   
  
"Chiko? Ci..ci.." A taken aback nosie said  
  
Ash looked down slowly.slowly to his leg.  
  
This dumb collar must be tied down.   
  
He though to himself, testing the limit of an unseen chain as he rased his head further  
  
Hey,it's the same Chikorita from that strange forest!  
  
"Chikri!" The plant pokemon exclaimed joyfully and dipped it's leaf to one side, scattering a tiny waterfall of shining dust.   
  
Its using Synthesis.   
  
He observed in awe, wondering at the actually use of a pokemon move on a human.   
  
The glass in his leg was gone, and as he watched in wonder, the little Chikorita's healing powder seemed to be slowly closing the wound.  
  
"Chi!" It said happily and smiled up at him.  
  
Boy, you're a cool pokemon. Ash thought, and smiled back, silently letting out a laugh Too bad you aren't on my team.  
  
"Cici, ri.ko." The pokemon said softly, sounding a little sad but hopeful as it turned around, looked back for moment, and then walked out pass Ash's limited line of vision.  
  
Somewhere just pass the corner of his eye the young boy heard the sound of a heavy door being locked . 


	4. The Native

Part 4: The Native

The taste was bitter in her mouth. Even so, the seaweed had an almost comforting effect on the girl as she carried it in her teeth under the clear water.

This was her favorite time of day, when the sun melted upon the meeting place of the greater water and its smaller river brother.

Dipping up out of the surface for only a moment's breath of air, her red hair flashed in the breeze. Then, like that which the oldest legends called a dolphin, she was gone.

The Masters called her kind Water Gnats, and with good reason, as they were the clan of the fastest humans to ever take to water, holding their breath for nearly eight cycles.

In a small corner of its mind, this girl held a feeling very near to pride at that title.

Swimming swiftly, the human hummed a silent melody as she gathered jade colored planets from the river bottom. Her clan would feast well that evening she knew.

(Master calls me early,

Yes master you only I please

Wash you so you may be great

Carry you so you're never late

Master calls me at mid-day

Yes master that be your wish

Cut your leaves for you

Hold out the dish...)

She paused in her singing, letting herself be pulled face up to the waters top to float lazily as she tied the bundle of greens to her front. At this carefree moment she allowed herself a thought, a rare thing in the life of hiding and forging that all humans lived by.

(Is what the Old Ones say true? Does death really follow getting a master?)

The blue sky above her whipped with veils of clouds offered no answer. She blinked and the thought was gone as quickly as it had formed, like a wind upon grass.

Then...Before she could wonder at the existence of life without freedom any longer... her own was gone.

The weight of the cords that suddenly appeared around her were heavy, like the death she had once felt long ago, griped in the jaws of a hunting Houndour.

The girl's body reacted like lightening, one lean wild human soul screaming a single thought:

(Getawaygetawaygetawaygetaway.)

She dived completely under water again, pulling with a raw toned instinct with the rivers certain. Pulling, testing the limit of the Masters net. Clawing, biting, kicking, _anything_...

Her green eyes shown with a light of bright young defiance as precious bubbles of air drifted upward from her mouth.

It couldn't happen like this...not now...

What about her clan? What would happen to them?

Her vision blurred for a moment, but she fought on.

To surface in a Master's net,

Is to die and not regret.

The Old Ones rhyme of warming sang in her head.

_(No..no..Jam..Jess..)_ She whispered, no longer moving.

Her eyes were open then, unseeing, as the world became darkness.

---------------------------------------------

When she came among the living again she found herself, not in a net of strong cord, but trapping of even stronger rock. Turning about wildly in it's soil of dried grass, she pulled at the trappings bars with all her might..and then..out of the corner of her eye...saw _Him._

_(A male?...)_

Slowly, slowly, her spent arms still grasping the bars, yet now a bit less focused on their reason for doing so, she turned.

Yes, he was indeed a male, clothed in the traditional way she had once since on the human clan of the Grasslands, who wore no wrappings around the chest. His skin was a dark ivory with hair a shade of black she had never seen before. But his eyes were somehow so bright, like suns of brown, that she found herself looking into them before she could stop.

She felt a strange kinship now along with this odd male. Not wanting to appear unfriendly, she quickly made her way other to the male and kneeled. In the common fashion of her people, she pressed her forehead against his in greeting and spoke.

_(I am called Mist. Who are you?)_

Mist sat, puzzled, as the male's face grew a bright pink color...


	5. The Realization

Chapter 5: The Realization

As much as he hated to admit it, Ash found he was starting to accept the reality of this strange new world.

Just enough, that is, to realize events he had been though in the last unknown number of hours had not been merely a nightmare brought on by pain and fever…

The shadows of the bars fell in upon the golden straw flooring of the cell, weaving over it like the hand of a spider web.

Morning.

He quickly began to wake up, his head jerking upward with a sudden start as he tried to pull again on a neck chain that was no longer there, and fell forward on all fours like a bug, scurrying to stand upright.

Acting on a desire that had been denied of him, for what seemed liked an eternity of his limbs being tied down, the boy ripped with a renewed surge of passionate energy at the leather band around his neck.

Stopping at last when his fingers began to ache and the corset like bindings of the collar showed no signs of giving in, he sighed deeply, eyeing the area around him.

The iron door that he had heard being closed the past evening was now open a little more than a few inches, letting in the fresh feeling of circulating air and daylight that had awoken him.

Ash strained against the cell's bars for a moment testing their strength by trying to force his body though them. After almost getting his head permanently wedged in-between the pieces of metal the boy quickly gave up on that plan.

Whoever or _whatever_ had built this place, it was definitely made to keep in even the smallest of prisoners.

It was an odd feeling to him, no longer having the argue to sleep in like he had once, back in his own world of clean soft sheets and the sound of his mother cooking downstairs.

Rice.

Ash's ever-hungry thirteen-year-old stomach growled at the thought of the simple basic food he had once taken for granted.

Then, as if in answer to his unspoken prayers, he noticed a spot of color half hidden under a pile of the grassy flooring…

***********

_A collar that keeps me from talking but not breathing or eating. Weird..._

_Then again, maybe eating's part of some sort of torture here to…_

Sitting crossed legged in a far corner with the early morning light just beginning to highlight his youthful featers,

Ash looked down distastefully at the contents of the clipped red wood bowl he was holding.

It was filled with leafs in many bright shades of green and yellow mixed with small white pieces of root that looked like uncooked noodle

s and tasted remarkably like celery.

_Nice to know the pokémon here are vegetarians, I guess._ Ash mused thoughtfully

All his life he had always been a true believer in the fact that deep down, all pokémon, no matter how bad their master ordered them to act,

were basically good at heart. But Ash had a feeling deep down in his gut that if the pokémon in that room he remembered had

been meat eaters he would be being served up with gravy and a side of baby potatoes right about now.

I wonder where their trainers are? 

He thought, scooping the mix into his mouth as fast as he could to avoid tasting it.

Somehow that same feeling in his gut seemed to override his taste buds, asking an even more trying question:

Did they even _have_ masters?

The thought sent a shiver down his frame.

If those pokémon had been acting of their will..

There was definitely something different about these pokémon though..Something about their eyes...

A sudden sound broke the morning silence, making Ash's mind snap out of thought and his body edge immediately nearer the bars,

as if acting on a primal need for freedom.

The noise was clear and sharp, soundly oddly out of place like the rhythm of a sick steam engine.

The way in which it echoed thought the space around the corner of the hall his cell was located on gave the boy a mental picture

of a maze of corridors just beyond his line of vision.

Ash eyes brightened as he recognized the familiar pokémon speak.

"Chic, Chic, CHI!"

"Chic, Chic, CHI!"

The unmistakable sound of wood being dragged over dirt accompanied every "CHI!" of force as Ash heard it grow nearer and nearer,

finally catching sight of its source as it rounded the corner.

Despite the depression he had been feeling Ash couldn't help but smile to himself.

Two Chikorita, one pushing with its head and leaf, and the other pulling with its vine whip in a cart horse fashion, were transporting a box,

nearly the size of both their bodies put together, between them.

They moved slowly but steadily up to his cell, staying far toward the other wall, as if knowing that any closer would put them within grabbing distance.

He mouthed an unfruitful greeting as the two pokémon came to a stop in front of his enclosure, their eyes turned toward him.

"Chico, Chi, ck!" The first spoke cheerfully, its eyes shining.

Ash could tell by its slightly paler yellow color that this one was the female of the two, as well as the pokémon who he had grown accustomed to seeing twice before.

Chioro…" Its companion replied in an almost business like tone.

The glace the male shot him of piercing consideration made Ash gulp involuntarily.

Something about that mere look made him feel very like a frog in science class.

But, before he had time to even begin to think of this visit as an opportunity for escape, a winkle of gritting gold Stun Spore quickly clouded his eyes and mind.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

"Don't you think that was over doing it a bit?"

Chikorita spoke flatly, eyeing the human parlayed in place like it was a hatchling that had been punished for a crime it didn't commit.

_The poor thing…_ She added to herself silently

"Now Chikorita, you know as well as I if you give it an inch a human will bolt…"

Sunspot retorted, whipping his leaf to the side with an air of importance, his eyes narrowing ever so slightly as he added,

" Besides…I didn't care for that look he was just giving me.."

Chikorita let her usually merry laugh ring out, a showing for emotion that was all but forbidden in the normally over formal gatherings of her fellow doctors.

Somehow, being within the walls of her own center with only her subjects and a pawfull of hired assistants always had a way of putting her mind at ease.

It even seemed to have had some effect on Sunspot over the two years they had been researching together, melting off some of his usual habit for saying just what he thought when he thought of it.

"_Now_ who's the one that has been spending too much time in the human pens?" Chikorita spoke lightly, as if playing a tried and true part in an age-old debate between the two.

Sunspot sighed, drooping his leaf in mock defect and winking

"Alright, alright, perhaps I did use a bit too much for such a young one. Let us go in and tie the little male for testing before he decides wake up though, all right?"

Chikorita nodded firmly and cheerfully to Sunspot…

But somewhere, in the very back of her mind, the small female felt a wave of regret at the thought of tying this particular human again. 

She shook her head a bit, fighting off a certain alien feeling she could not put a name to that had been growing nearer and dearer to the surface of her thoughts.

_What's wrong with me? _She pondered and then stopped herself as she joined Sunspot in a teamwork effort to open the door by standing on his head as he reared up.

Oh, it doesn't matter. Right now what's most important are the tests, yes that's right, the tests...

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Author's note: Just make things clear, this chapter takes place before Chap 4 but also while some of the events of 4 _are happening_. It will all come together soon; thank you kind readers for your support.


End file.
